Doctors Without Borders Publishes Report on Earthquake Emergency Relief in Haiti

Six months after the earthquake that hit Haiti on January 12, 2010, the international medical humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF; Geneva, Switzerland) has released a report describing the emergency response, the dire living conditions of Haitians today, and MSF's commitment for the coming years.

According to the report, as of May 31, 2010, 138 days following the disaster, MSF had brought in almost 27,000 tents and distributed more than 35,000 relief kits. MSF staff treated more than 173,000 people and performed more than 11,000 surgical procedures; more than 81,000 Haitians received support to cope with psychological trauma. An extraordinary number of foreign aid workers had to be brought into the country quickly, since many Haitian health workers themselves were also victims of the earthquake; this put a huge strain on MSF's human resources and management capacity. However, over this period, MSF managed to reduce staff from an initial 350 foreign workers, as more Haitians were hired to work in MSF facilities. By the end of May 2010, 93% of MSF staff on the ground was Haitian.

MSF also reports that as of May 31, 2010, approximately US$122 million was received in public donations earmarked for Haiti relief. The organization spent $71.5 million by that same date, including more than $14.8 million on surgery, $5.4 million on maternal health--delivering 3,700 babies--and over $11 million providing shelter. MSF foresees that, by the end of 2010, it will have spent around $120 million on assistance to the Haitian population. Although there are uncertainties regarding the rate of reconstruction and the extent to which other organizations will still provide health care, MSF declared that, it is committed to continue working for the victims of the earthquake in the years to come.

"Health care was already fragile in Haiti before January 12,” said Unni Karunakara, M.D., the International President of MSF. "The earthquake destroyed much of the medical services that were available. It will take many years before the country is back on its feet. MSF is determined to play our part in rebuilding health care for Haitians and will dedicate our staff and means to this task as required.”

"Haitians were the first to respond to this disaster, and we have reinforced their effort with a massive aid intervention,” added MSF Head of Mission Stefano Zannini, who was in Port-au-Prince when the earthquake struck, killing and injuring hundreds of thousands of people and leaving more than a million people without shelter. "Today, medical provisions for Haitians have improved, and are certainly more accessible than before the earthquake, allowing poor people to receive proper health care.”

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